Matteo Gabbia has been the best defender for AC Milan this season, but has played the least among the centre-backs due to an injury. Now back to full fitness, the Rossoneri are hoping for stability at the back, as a report highlights.
As Gazzetta dello Sport points out, Milan have had different centre-back partnerships in the last five games: Thiaw-Tomori against Real, Thiaw-Pavlovic against Cagliari, Gabbia-Thiaw against Juve, Tomori-Pavlovic against Slovan and yesterday Gabbia-Thiaw against Empoli.
In addition to this, Paulo Fonseca has only deployed the same pairing in the following match three times: Tomori-Pavlovic (Parma, Lazio), Gabbia-Tomori (Inter, Lecce, Bayer, Fiorentina) and Thiaw-Pavlovic (Napoli, Monza).
The minutes also speak for themselves: Tomori leads with 995, then Pavlovic at 830, Thiaw at 727 and Gabbia (held back by a month due to calf problems) at 698. In short, everyone has been given a fair chance and that is quite unusual in the heart of the defence.
Nevertheless, as the report continues, Gabbia is the one that stands out thanks to the performances and for what he gives to the team: stability. In the eight games in which he started, Milan conceded only five goals and lost twice (Bayer, Fiorentina, the latter a very particular defeat).
The average points per game with him stand at 1.62, while the average goals conceded per game stand at 0.62. In the ten games without Matteo, the average points drops to 1.5 and the average goals conceded (17) soars dramatically: 1.7.
Mattis is the only real leader we have back there. Thiaw is much better with him than with headless chicken Tomori.
Tomori has had the bad luck being paired to Pavlovic the most, which means you will automatically look bad. Pair Tomori to Gabbia and we probably keep that clean sheet you know. Pair Pavlo to anyone and you can place your bet that we will concede, guaranteed. Don’t understand the sudden hate towards Tomori, he hasn’t had the greatest start of the season but the last 1,5 month or so he’s been very dedicated, cleaning the mess up for his partner in crime on more than one occasion
It’s not sudden. Tomori was only good for the first season he was here. And a half since he came in January.
So basically after the scudeto season he has been dead average while being a starter.
The no call ups for the national team isn’t a coincidence and us leaking goals all the time is another red flag..
He never stepped up in 2 years, time to sell imao.
Oh and btw gabbia did step up. That’s what I’m talking about and that’s what we’d expect from tomori. Yet doesn’t happen.
Gabbia and Pavlovic, please.